I Still Don’t Understand How the Local Weather Works

Yeah, I knew the rules were going to be different when I moved to Kentucky, but you’d think that after living here for a year and a half, I’d have them figured out. Typical Florida weather rules are that it’s hot every day from May to September, thunderstorms are likely on any summer afternoon, frosts are only possible from December to February, and that there are no warm fronts – only cold fronts. Well, if anything, there seem to be fewer rules here, because Kentucky weather is less predictable.

Yesterday morning a warm front came in, which brought temperatures up to 60. However, it also brought rain; light rain in the morning, heavy rain in the evening. And wind. Last week Leive found some wild chives growing in the lawn, dug them out and put them in two pots. I placed the pots outside yesterday so that the rain would water them, but by 9 PM it was so windy that I took them back to the garage, before they got blown over. Then some gusts woke me up at 2:30 AM, and made enough noise that I couldn’t go back to sleep after that. This morning the temperature was in the 20s, and the doors on my car were nearly frozen shut because of the previous rain; today we were lucky it got above freezing at all.

I talked the other day about Kentucky college basketball. Since then, the last stage in the college football season opened up; yesterday the teams going to the big bowl games were announced. Remember when it was just the Cotton, Orange and Rose Bowls, and they all played around New Year’s Day? Now there are 32 bowl games, according to this website, and the last one is scheduled for January 7, my birthday. Gosh, I couldn’t keep track of them all even when I worked at Ticketmaster! In Florida alone we had the Orange Bowl, the Gator Bowl, the Citrus Bowl, the Hall of Fame Bowl, the Blockbuster Bowl and the Outback Bowl. I guess this is a case of the sports industry expanding to deliver all that the market will bear.

The University of Kentucky is going to play in Nashville’s Music City Bowl, the same place where they played and won last year. I hope the Wildcats do well, but this time it’s going to be harder to root for a team; they’re playing Florida State, one of the favorites from my former home (and my brother-in-law’s alma mater). I remember one family in my Orlando neighborhood rooted for the Seminoles by putting red and gold lights (FSU colors) on their roof every December, spelling out the words, “Go Noles.”

Speaking of Noles, Neal Boortz posted this picture on his website, Boortz.com, last week. He thought it was a redneck trying to spell Noel, but what if it was another FSU fan’s idea of a Christmas decoration?